Celebration Profiles — March 13-17
In honor of our centennial anniversary, we are featuring members of our optometry community — past and present — each day of 2023!
See below for this week’s profiles.
This Week, We Are Celebrating…
Jack T. Hobson, OD
Dr. Jack Hobson was born in San Jose, California on August 10, 1899. In 1926 he graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in electrical engineering and went to work for the Standard Oil Company. He completed the optometry program at Berkeley Optometry in 1930, one in a class of only three graduates. After three years in private practice after graduation, in 1937 he joined the faculty at Berkeley Optometry.
At the time of his hire, only Hobson, Minor, and Frederick Mason were full-time optometry faculty. Hobson taught courses on Elementary Theoretical Optometry and Practical Optometry, while also teaching Orthoptics and supervising the Clinic. He also completed a much-needed revised syllabus on Practical Optometry in 1938. Despite his teaching responsibilities, Dr. Hobson also purchased a practice in Hayward in 1937.
Dr. Hobson was actively involved in optometric organizations, most notably the California Optometric Association. In recognition of his achievements as a practitioner, teacher, and member of the profession, the Optometry Alumni Association of UC honored Hobson as “Alumnus of the Year” in 1958. Dr. Hobson remained on the faculty at Berkeley Optometry until 1960, when he retired to Murphys, California.
Anne Tasaki, OD
Dr. Tasaki received her optometry degree and completed her residency in Pediatrics and Primary Care at the University of California Berkeley School of Optometry. Currently, Dr. Tasaki is a full-time Assistant Clinical Professor at the Pediatrics and Primary Care Clinics where she teaches third and fourth year optometry students as well as mentors the current pediatrics, primary care and community health residents. She also works as a pediatric optometrist for Kaiser Permanente in San Rafael.She previously provided comprehensive vision care to preschool students in lower income communities through the non-profit See Well to Learn Program with Prevent Blindness Northern California, and is passionate about children’s vision and improving access to and education about early intervention. Dr. Tasaki is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and previously served as President of Alameda, Contra Costa Counties Optometric Society. She is currently the COA-AOA Faculty Liaison and is also a member of the Continuing Education Committee for UCBSO. Dr. Tasaki enjoys hiking and trail running in her free time, and exploring new and interesting places to eat in the Bay Area.
Joseph A. Bonanno, OD, PhD
Dr. Joseph A. Bonanno received his BA in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania (1975), MS in Molecular Biology (1977), OD (1981), and PhD in Physiological Optics (1987) from UC Berkeley. Dr. Bonanno completed a primary care residency at the Eye Institute–Pennsylvania College of Optometry (1982) and was Director of the Contact Lens Service at Wills Eye Hospital (1982-83). Dr. Bonanno was hired as a postdoc at the Louisiana State University where he worked from 1987 to 1988.Dr. Bonanno later returned to Berkeley to work at the Department of Physiology and Anatomy, becoming an assistant professor in 1989, and a professor in 1997. He joined the Indiana University School of Optometry faculty in July 1998 as professor of optometry, where he continues his research in corneal physiology and teaches biochemistry and physiology to optometry students. Dr. Bonanno served as the Associate Dean at IU School of Optometry from 2005 to 2007, and became the Dean of the School in 2010. Dr. Bonanno is a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, a member of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and a member of the American Physiological Society.
Reem Almagati, OD, MS
Current vision science student Reem Almagati completed her OD degree from King Saud University in Riyadh. Upon graduation she received binocular vision anomalies training at King Khalid specialized eye hospital, and then worked for a little less than a year at a pediatric eye clinic. In 2019, she joined New England College of Optometry’s vision science master program where she worked on visual perceptual abilities in children with cerebral visual impairments with Dr. Barry Kran and Dr. Luisa Mayer. She is interested in the brain and understanding how the brain deals and translates visual input to form perception, and is also interested in evaluating functional vision in people with CVI, ADHD and autism. Dr. Almagati is the host of the school’s Young Vision Scientist podcast!